Erdogan Quickly Uses New Sweeping Powers To Round Up His Opponents

I recently posted a blog column on the troubling image of President Donald Trump calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to congratulate him on his success in securing what are viewed as near dictatorial powers in the close recent referendum. Erdogan did not waste any time in using the powers. Turkish police have arrested 1,000 people suspected of being supporters of Erdogan’s main opponent, US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Thousands of opponents are now being arrested or questioned under those newly acquired powers. Thousands of teachers have been fired under Erdogan and tens of thousands detained since his rise to power.

22 thoughts on “Erdogan Quickly Uses New Sweeping Powers To Round Up His Opponents”

[…] the coup. Thousands of opponents have arrested or questioned under those newly acquired powers. Thousands of teachers have been fired under Erdogan and tens of thousands detained since his rise to […]

I cannot understand how Erdogan can bomb and kill our Kurdish allies ,placing our embedded troops in harm’s way, and we do not vigorously protest? We should warn that dictator that if his bombers come near our troops again, they will be shot down!

Errogan resistance started with a small environmental protest when one of his cronys wanted to unnecessarily cut down a tree.
I watched Turkmen with safe havens in Turkey over run Syrian army posts a year ago on YouTube. Russia has both eyes open about Syria. The Turkmen on the Northwest border have since been kicked-out of Syria. Rex Tillerson said ‘Russian sanctions will remain until Crimea is given back”. Tell me how well that has worked for the Tibetians in China?

Secularist-Nationalists had their chance in the coup is point one. Point two is the Saudi Arabian/neoconservative project in Syria has come home to roost in Syria.
The US strengthened the Kurds while arming the most radical of Islamists. Do you expect this zeal not to affect Turkey? The genie is already out of the bottle. This is the fruits of war and destabilization.
In history, this used to be what happened in China until Mao Zedong kicked out the foreign powers.

IIRC, Gulen is kind of a liberal Muslim, and if so, Erdogan is smart to stamp that stuff out. Liberals will destroy a nation quicker than you can say “Haydi düğmeleri kapatarak elektrik tasarrufu yapalım*” ten times without screwing it up.